Hard News: Chill out: it's a party
69 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 Newer→ Last
-
recordari, in reply to
it would be really nice if the Herald would engage in some honest self-reflection about whether it adds value to public discourse.
But, according to today's Rugby Herald, it's 'The paper they read in heaven'. Divine status doesn't come with mirrors.
-
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
is anyone actually campaigning?
Yep , got door knockers for Labour Saturday. It was persisting down and they were soaked but extremely upbeat :)
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Yeah, Tapu, it's not as if The Herald had editors who could have decided the "Minister of Bad Manners" story had no news value. I really love the way media folks act as if they've no influence over their own editorial and news judgement. Do magic elves assemble newspapers, television news and radio bulletins?
The quantum of airtime and column inches devoted to that non-story is really quite remarkable. Still, Greg Growden of the SMH can be forgiven for finding the whole thing highly amusing.
-
while they drink heavily, they do not get aggro or stupid when drunk
Firstly, I think it's down to perception of what "aggro or stupid" is. For this event, TPTB have obviously decided on a fairly high tolerance level. For a music event (or the one-day cricket), less so. It's interesting that the liquor laws (as interpreted) require rigid segregation of 18+ drinkers from under 18's at Big Day Out, but not at a sporting event.
Secondly, NZ has a violence problem much more than it has a drinking problem. Even anti-violence advertising is often steeped in the implied threat of violence (e.g. posters with a big bloke looking staunch). If one's conditioned that violence is ok (always under defined circumstances) then it's more likely that one will become violent when in an altered state.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
There is something about the Irish – reports from publicans after the Ireland/USA game in New Plymouth said that while they drink heavily, they do not get aggro or stupid when drunk*. Instead they get happier and mellow.
Oh, they're capable of getting very passionate. But yeah. Some of the Irishmen I saw in town seemed basically incredulous at what had happened, more than anything.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
It’s interesting that the liquor laws (as interpreted) require rigid segregation of 18+ drinkers from under 18’s at Big Day Out, but not at a sporting event.
Or at Queen's Wharf. I saw one child at The Cloud -- dancing happily -- but that seemed to be excuse enough to police the whole thing as if it were a school disco.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
ETA: BTW, my David worked on Saturday night and when he rolled in at 2.30am he said the most eventful thing that happened was helping to steer a couple of benignly drunk Irishmen towards a taxi rack.
Glad to hear it. And they shipped a lot of people.
-
Steve Barnes, in reply to
There is a single upside to Smiley John: Thoughts of "that nice Mr Key" might divert the wizened from voting for "That nice Mr Peters".
Dare I say it? Even that "Nice Mr Peters" has some good points.
-
I was at the Ireland v Australia game on Saturday (fantastic atmosphere by the way, and the rendition of Whisky in the Jar that rang around the stadium at the end sent some Irish fans nearby into a joyous frenzy), but I have to comment about one of the worse pieces of security heavy-handedness I've ever seen.
Three young Wallaby fans stripped down to speedos and surf-livesaving helmets early into the game. Good on them, given the temperature they were much braver than me. The crowd got into the craic, plenty of Irish fans had their photos taken with the intrepid trio, all good banter. Just before kick-off, security and police arrived, and simply hooked them. No 'put your shirts on lads', no 'can you stop having so much fun with the other fans', no 'see how NZ can put on a good-natured RWC', just gone. Evicted. Despite the pleas of the Irish and Wallaby fans around them. I was astonished at the approach.
-
Sorry - meant to say just before half-time, so at least they saw half the game.
I couldn't imagine Phoenix fans in Wellington taking kindly to being prevented from taking their shirts off :)
-
um - but hasn't this whole Auckland party central storm-in-a-teacup thing been driven by electioneering on National's part, trying to make McCully and the Nats look positive and jumping in to do the right thing, and that evil lefty proxy-Labour council bad in comparison - at least many of the people I've talked about it with here seem to think it has little to do with reality unless you do think it's an election campaign by another name
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
How utterly, utterly absurd.
I suppose it was a "miracle" no one caught a fucking cold or something.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
um – but hasn’t this whole Auckland party central storm-in-a-teacup thing been driven by electioneering on National’s part, trying to make McCully and the Nats look positive and jumping in to do the right thing, and that evil lefty proxy-Labour council bad in comparison
Yes, but I remain of the view that McCully's actions were much more about the minister's butt-covering panic attack than a planned strategy to deal to the mayor and his council.
The "Labour are being negative ninnies" thing was just a spin line to avoid talking about McCully in Parliament. Ironically, the international media stories about the opening night problems only came after the "take control" press conference.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
I couldn’t imagine Phoenix fans in Wellington taking kindly to being prevented from taking their shirts off :)
In which sense it's a bit like the security guards I described in the post -- over-eager security sometimes has a counterproductive effect.
-
(I think my point is that from here at least it looks like National playing for an Auckland audience, but not running a campaign in the rest of the country - there's all sorts of nuanced stuff going on in that issue that means nothing to most of the rest of us)
-
Bart Janssen, in reply to
No ‘put your shirts on lads’, no ‘can you stop having so much fun with the other fans’, no ‘see how NZ can put on a good-natured RWC’, just gone. Evicted.
WTF !?!?!?!?!?!?!?
-
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Methinks you underestimate MachiMcCully. :)
-
Sacha, in reply to
and Mr Joyce
-
I was in Hamilton yesterday and the police was very relaxed despite being there in big numbers. Before the game I asked a cop where we could have our pre-game drinks in peace because the pub was too full and he just pointed us to some places where no cop would bother us.
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
and Prostetnic Vogon Joyce
Fix'd.
-
BenWilson, in reply to
That's just nuts. This isn't the Middle East.
-
Very relaxed cops at the Dunedin games, too. Quite a few down from Chch for the event, and rather enjoying themselves, I got the impression.
-
Not to be a downer, but there was one near-miss on the opening night in Auckland - a security guard was set upon by a group (ostensibly in the city for the celebrations) in Albert Park and quite seriously injured. Apparently only the quick thinking and calm reaction of one of his fellow guards who happened to come upon the scene saved his life.
-
Here's the One News report on the crowding in Kingsland, which is really quite misinformed.
Despite Auckland Transport making the numbers available very promptly, Donna-Marie Lever says that "fans shunned the failed transport network" -- which simply doesn't tally with the numbers recorded, which were almost the same as the previous Friday.
The match organisers told everyone to arrive early -- then didn't open the gates. Not exactly the council's fault.
According to Doug McKay, the council wanted to close the strip, but the police declined.
And really, was it that bad? The police seemed to have handled things sensibly enough and then everyone went to the match.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Not to be a downer, but there was one near-miss on the opening night in Auckland – a security guard was set upon by a group (ostensibly in the city for the celebrations) in Albert Park and quite seriously injured.
Nasty, but its really hard to see how something that happens in Albert Park is the fault of the council -- which presumably actually posted the security guard there -- rather than the people who committed the assault.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.